How can building technologies accommodate different and often conflicting user preferences without dissolving the social cohesiveness, intrinsic of every architectural intervention? Individual thermal comfort has often been considered a negligible sensorial experience by modern heating and cooling technologies, and is often influenced by large-group norms. Alternatively, we propose that buildings are repositories of indoor microclimates that can be realized to provide personalized comfort, to create healthier environments, and to enhance the attributes of architectural interventions into haptic dimensions. In response, the goal of this study is to characterize an experimental framework that integrates responsive thermal systems with occupants' direct and indirect experience, which includes stress response and biometric data. A computational model was used up to inform and analyze thermal perception of subjects, and later tested in a responsive physical installation. While results show that thermal comfort assessment is affected by individual differences including cognitive functions and biometrics, further computational efforts are needed to validate biometric indicators. Finally, the implications of personalized built environments are discussed with respect to future technology developments and possibilities of design driven by biometric data.
In recent years, materials have emerged as a focus of architectural pedagogy. Beyond teaching students to think of materials in architecture as part of the design process, the ambition here is bolder: to design architecture means to design materials. Conversely, materials in architecture should not be thought of as a matter of choice, as from a catalog, but rather as an explicit design objective. This paper examines a Framework for a Pedagogical Approach to Materials by Design. While we explore the idea that we design material as we design form, we shouldn’t have to choose between the two. It does not have to be the one way relationship of form to material. This relationship has been disrupted by recent advances. In Materials Science, the term Materials by Design refers to “computational materials prediction approaches, corresponding advanced synthesis and characterization methods” for the purpose of accelerating material innovation. However, this approach is limited to optimization at small scales. Here we expand the term to approach the design of materials through a multi-scalar evaluation framed by their structural, energetic, ecological, social and cultural performances.. Composite materials have caught the attention of designers and scientists alike as a paradigmatic counter-example to industrial production of assemblies for the built environment. The efficiency in the use of materials, economy of production and the reduction of CO2 emissions have become common place discussions among practitioners of architecture. Composites seem to promise a viable way forward. Composites also present unique formal and performative potentials for architecture. Moreover, they tend to require design of new fabrication methods. As such, composites are the focal, but not the exclusive, effort of the framework. The Materials by Design Framework is taught through our Materials Systems and Production class. Four successive engagements with materials, from their cultural positioning, to their ecological and scientific characterization, culminate in the design and fabrication of functional composites for architecture. Material Cultures: Beginning with the history of materials, students develop timelines exploring the feedback loop of culture and materials. Material Selections: Using CES EduPack software, students encounter a vast expansion of materials available to architecture paired with workflows to select specific materials for given functions. Material Ecologies: Circular economies and the emerging role of waste in design are presented. Students develop lifecycle and embodied energy analyses of emerging materials. Materials by Design: Students develop a parametric sensibility of materials, providing inspiration and precedent for later invention. A literature review of existing technological and biological composites is performed. Students design material library “cards” for all researched examples generating their own taxonomic system and a basis for their own designs. Then, through the virtual “cross breeding” of material properties, students rigorously evaluate materials by compatibility and difference. The pairings of performances such as opacity and transparency, structure and insulation pose challenges and opportunities for fabrication and design. Composite samples, which we term Materials by Design, are fabricated in a consistent format, a “core sample”, to test and compare design hypotheses.
The indoor thermal environment is conventionally considered homogeneous as anchored on a universal thermal comfort paradigm, although occupants' experience is often diversified and influenced by several physio-cognitive factors. Personal comfort devices aim to enhance thermal comfort acceptance through localized heating and cooling while reducing overall energy consumption as temperature set-points of centralized HVAC systems can be relaxed. To further incentivize the adoption of distributed HVAC systems, it is critical to examine the energy benefits and the spatial characteristics of heterogeneous thermal environments. Here we developed a parametric framework based on building energy modeling coupled with a spatial visualization of micro-climatic thermal fields, which respond to a variable space occupation. HVAC system loads and indoor environmental conditions, extracted from the energy model, are integrated with an analysis of the human thermal balance. As a case study, a thermoelectric-based system for personalized thermal comfort was considered in an office space, based on a specific layout of workstations and meeting rooms. The contribution of distributed heating and cooling systems to the overall HVAC energy consumption was analyzed for the office, and the micro-climatic variability was visualized based on transient occupation patterns. Understanding the impact of variable occupation for the building energy balance is significant for developing performative metrics for next-generation distributed HVAC systems. At the same time, it can inform novel design strategies based on micro-climatic controls to maximize personalized thermal comfort and enhance the quality of indoor environments. KEYWORDS indoor micro-climates, energy modeling, responsive environments, personalized thermal comfort, thermal field visualization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.